Shuttleworth Lecture 2017

Following a successful reintroduction to the Society calendar last year, the Shuttleworth Lecture returned on the 20th March at Shuttleworth College.

Our guest speaker for the evening was Professor Simon Pearson. Hailing from a farming background, Simon’s current role is head of Agri-food technology at the University of Lincoln, he has travelled the world looking at farming technology and practices and we were lucky enough he could join us to share these experiences.

The topic of the talk was ‘the role of technology in post Brexit agriculture’, and to give you a taste of the evening , Simon drew a number of conclusions at the end of his talk:

The impacts of Brexit and the new BAP will be highly significant for the industry.

Media coverage with Agriculture tends to draw our attention to the New Zealand way of farming, although there are lessons to be learned from New Zealand, it is not all rosy.

Diversification will continue to play a large part in the sustainability of Farm Business’s and Energy has its place too.

Technology is emerging and will play a leading role in the future, but in Simons opinion we cannot rely on GM as a means to go forward

Ruth works across a number of society events, including the East of England Farming Conference, Shuttleworth Lecture and Winter Stock Festival. Ruth is also the point of contact for Cultiv8 and the Society membership.